


…Or Anything

by mcgarrygirl78



Category: Criminal Minds
Genre: F/M, Friendship, Romance
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2014-10-11
Updated: 2014-10-11
Packaged: 2018-02-20 17:25:07
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,666
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/2436857
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/mcgarrygirl78/pseuds/mcgarrygirl78
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>“Oh my God,” Emily covered her mouth. “Do that again.”</p>
            </blockquote>





	…Or Anything

“Is this seat taken?”

 

Emily looked up from the crossword, a smile crossing her lips. She still wore surprise in her eyes but his hazel gaze never drifted from hers.

 

“What are you doing here?” she asked.

 

“Best variety of tea in the state.” BAU Unit Chief Aaron Hotchner held up his large mug. “Is this seat taken?”

 

“Um, no, it isn’t. Please sit.”

 

He did and right after came the awkward silence. Emily cleared her throat and pushed her paper to the side.

 

“No coffee this morning?” she asked for lack of anything else.

 

“Autumn is definitely tea time for me.” He replied.

 

“What kind did you get?”

 

“Blackberry pomegranate, and I have to tell you its pretty good. What are you having?”

 

“Kenyan roast with…”

 

“Light cream and enough sugar to kill a bull moose at fifty paces.” Hotch finished.

 

“Splenda.” Emily corrected.

 

“OK, enough Splenda to kill a bull moose. You're off sugar now?”

 

“Being hyper is for people in their 20s. In your thirties you have to get your kicks some other way.”

 

“Tackling Unsubs might be a good way.”

 

“Hotch, what are you doing here?” Emily asked again.

 

“I told you.” He took a deep breath and a sip of his tea.

 

“I come here a lot; I've never seen you before.”

 

“Actually I read about this place online. Coffee, Tea, or Anything…I thought the name was catchy. I've been here a few times but never stayed for the view.”

 

“What view?”

 

They were sitting out on the side deck with the perfect view of Old Town Alexandria, VA. It really was a city of walkers and on a Sunday late morning there was much to see. Most were just home from 10am services at local churches and the heathens were just coming out of dark apartments or sleepy residential neighborhoods.

 

“Oh c'mon, you're a profiler.” Hotch said. “You love to people watch. You see them walk by and imagine what conversations they are having on their cell phones or what they're saying to their companions.”

 

“Guilty as charged.” Emily grinned. “Sometimes I drag Nat down here to do it with me. We’re rather merciless. It makes my father laugh.”

 

Hotch didn’t doubt it. He would love to be a fly on the wall when the Prentiss women went at it. He was about to ask her something else but the thought was interrupted by her cell phone. It must have been her personal cell; it was a ring tone Hotch didn’t recognize. It sounded like heavy metal.

 

“Excuse me for a moment. Hello.”

 

“Emily, it’s your mother.”

 

“Hello Mother, how are you?”

 

“Am I disturbing you?”

 

“Actually…”

 

“Where are you, sweetheart?” Elizabeth asked.

 

“Boca Raton.” Emily replied.

 

“You couldn’t possibly be on vacation.”

 

“No, um, serial arsonist…targeting bars. It’s a tough case.”

 

“Oh well, I don’t want to disturb your work.” Elizabeth said.

 

“Are you alright?” Emily asked.

 

“Yes, I'm fine. We should talk when you come home; we can have dinner.”

 

“Sure. I don’t know how long I’ll be here. We just got in last night. Let me call you in a few days.”

 

“Alright, sweetheart. I don’t want to take you away from your work. I love you.”

 

“I love you too, Mother. Goodbye.”

 

Emily closed the phone and slipped it back into her jeans pocket. It wasn’t the lie that embarrassed her but that she did it in front of Hotch. Somewhere down deep she still suspected that he suspected that she was untrustworthy.

 

“Good work.” He said.

 

“I didn’t like doing that.”

 

“But you did it so well.”

 

“It’s always easier when she’s on the phone.” Emily replied. “She can read my eyes…I can never do it when we’re face to face.”

 

“The calmness of your voice, at first I wondered how could you possibly master that and then I remembered.”

 

“Remembered what?” Emily asked.

 

“You have a Masters degree in Communications. You can probably fool anyone.”

 

“I don’t like fooling people, as you say. I prefer honesty. It’s just that, well with Mother…”

 

“You surely don’t have to tell me.” Hotch couldn’t help but smile.

 

“Oh right, you have met her.”

 

“Yes,” he nodded. “But I was talking about my own mother. Of course I’m not half as good as you when it comes to maternal deception.”

 

“Why not?”

 

“My accent gives me away.”

 

“What? You don’t have an accent.” Emily said.

 

“Oh yes I do…and when mama is close, even by telephone, it comes right out of me like water.”

 

“Oh my God,” Emily covered her mouth. “Do that again.”

 

“It’s not as easy to turn on and off as you might think, Emily.” Hotch said in a southern lilt. 

 

It wasn’t heavy like people she remembered hearing when she went to her mother’s hometown of Birmingham. She was going to ask Hotch how he used to sound like that but now sounded like this but knew her mother had changed her voice as well. She liked the way his sounded, sexy and dapper like a more tolerant version of Will LaMontagne, Jr. 

 

“Where are you from?”

 

“Virginia,” Hotch cleared his throat and came back with his normal voice. “Born and raised in Richmond. Well, I was born in Richmond, and then we moved to Manassas to be closer to my grandmother but moved back to Richmond when I started school and my father ran for State Senate.” Those two sentences were probably more than Hotch had told anyone about himself in a long time. Usually revelations like that made him uncomfortable but not over tea with Emily Prentiss. He noticed lately that on cases he was giving little pieces of himself to victims and Unsubs alike but someone he’d known for two years didn’t even know where he was born. “So you see, when the accent slips out lying is impossible.”

 

“What’s your mother like?” Emily asked.

 

As if knowing she was out of coffee, the server came to the table and asked if Emily wanted a refill. She nodded. Hotch also wanted more tea. The server said she would be back with everything they needed and the new brunch menu. Suddenly they were having brunch.

 

“My mother…she’s unpredictable.”

 

“You definitely didn’t pick up that trait. Oh wait, that came out wrong.”

 

“I don’t think it did.” Hotch replied.

 

“I didn’t mean it like that, Hotch.”

 

“Oh yes you did.” He grinned, letting his accent out again.

 

Emily didn't know why it made her giggle like a giddy teenage girl. He just sounded so sexy, not at all like her buttoned down Unit Chief. It made her think of steamy summer nights on a porch swing or even better a bed as a ceiling fan didn’t quite cool her off. It made her think of sweat sliding down her chest and sweet kisses as he caught the salty saline on his tongue. Jesus, could an accent give a woman an orgasm? It had been such a long time Emily wasn’t at all sure.

 

“As least you're from somewhere.” She said. “It’s not easy being from nowhere.”

 

“I always looked at it as you being from everywhere.” Hotch replied.

 

“I didn’t.”

 

He nodded understanding as the server came back. Drinks were refilled and they were given menus.

 

“Are you hungry?” Hotch asked.

 

“I'm pretty much always hungry. I'm sure I can find room for something.”

 

“The website said they had the best pastries in the DC Metro area.”

 

“I was thinking about Belgian waffles, maybe chocolate chip silver dollar pancakes. Ooh, Eggs Benedict might be nice. What's your favorite late night food?”

 

“I sleep at night.” Hotch replied.

 

“Since when? I hear you pacing hotel rooms all over the country.”

 

“OK, but I don’t often eat. I drink…God that probably doesn’t sound good.”

 

“It sounds accurate. We all drink, Hotch.”

  
“So what's your poison?” he asked.

 

“When I'm actually able to run a bath and cuddle with George, its wine. I love a good Pikes Clare Valley or Chateau Ste. Michelle. The perfect blend of sweetness and dry goes great with a bowl of fruit. It helps me relax. Now if I just want to get plastered and act as if I never have to return to Quantico, I'm pulling out the SoCo for some Alabama Slammers. I think I’m going to have the waffles.”

 

“George?” Hotch asked.

 

“I'm sorry?”

 

“Who’s George?”

 

“My cat.” Emily replied.

 

“You have a cat?”

 

“Mmm,” she nodded. “He’s an Abyssinian, almost two years old. My mother actually bought him for me for my birthday. I was a little mortified at the time…I didn’t want to be the cat lady. I mean it was bad enough I was single, but a cat, oh God. Can we talk about something else?”

 

“You brought up George, I didn’t.” He said.

 

“You're right, it’s entirely my fault.”

 

“I didn’t say that. You didn’t hear me say that.”

 

“I hear a lot of things you don’t say.” Emily said.

  
“Cryptic much?”

 

“Takes one to know one.” She laughed. “OK, you know about George so tell me what's in your apartment.”

 

“A little reciprocity?” Hotch asked.

 

“If you say so.”

 

“I say I'm hungry and this place is really adorable but they don’t have what I want on the menu.”

 

“What are you in the mood for?” Emily asked. She didn’t know why but her mouth went dry when she asked that question. 

 

“I'm not sure yet…I'm still thinking about it. Are you in the mood, Emily Prentiss, for an afternoon adventure?”

 

“If you keep talking with that accent I might be prepared to say yes to everything you ask.”

 

“I don’t know why it keeps slipping out.”

 

“Maybe it wants to get to know me better.” She replied.

 

“Let’s go grab some lunch. I’ll drive and we’ll swing back to pick up your car later. I mean…if you want to.”

 

“I do.”

 

“Check please.” Hotch held up his hand to get the server’s attention.

 

***

                                                                                                                               

  
 


End file.
